Thursday at the Kool Haus; Wednesday April 8, 2009

Thursday at the Kool Haus; Wednesday April 8, 2009.

This show was the closest thing I’ll ever get to a high school reunion… It’s because I feel as though the songs I heard tonight were a warm welcome to my high school past. I remember first buying the album ‘War All the Time’ in the tenth grade. I bought it with Thrice’s ‘Artist in the Ambulance’ at the HMV on Yonge Street. It was just before my Mother and I saw a play at the Cannon theatre. I remember flipping through the album’s lyrics to find a ‘cool’ lyric to put in my MSN screen name… (!!!) I wish I went to see Thursday, Thirce and the Deftones… What a line up, too bad it was at Arrow Hall…I would just like to put out there in facebookland that I, Kimberley Stemshorn went to ‘Taste of Chaos’. If you’re not familiar with ‘Taste of Chaos’ it’s the miniature, spring Warped Tour, give and take an ad. I made sure I missed every other band that played that night, because I had no interest in seeing any of them. It’s funny that I had never heard of any of these bands because five or six years ago I was completely on top of the “punk” music scene. [For sake of ease, I will just refer to it as “punk,” even though my housemates would like to interject what they believe punk is. Regardless, Thursday are kept in the punk section, therefore I will label them punk.] The bands that played tonight were probably the equivalent to Funeral for a Friend, Poison the Well or Planes Mistaken for Stars… The “indies” of “popular punk”. I’m just in complete aw that I’ve never heard of any of these bands… They’re probably on Victory, or Vagrant. This really scares me, I’m actually growing out of a scene of music. I feel old.I arrived just shy of ten, Thursday very prompt went on at five to the hour. Seeing them at the Kool Haus was incredible. The last time I saw them was at the Warped Tour in 2006. I remember running to the stage, alone and being very unsatisfied, due to the large stage and new songs played. They did get an extra ten minutes tagged to their set of all the bands, which was really great.Geoff Rickley kept apologising for their band flaking on past Toronto show(s?). I couldn’t think of one for the life of me, but I remember I almost went to Taste of Chaos three or four years ago when the Used were headlining and I returned my ticket lightening fast when I found out they weren’t playing. My friend Nicole went and apparently I burned her real bad for going. I was informed of this today.The first two songs they played were new. I didn’t know them, but they sounded pretty good. Before the third song, Rickley said to the crowd: “It looks like there’s a lot of old people here… We’re going to play a tune off of ‘Full Collapse’… This is “Understanding in a Car Crash.” Lame title, I know, but my heart stopped in anticipation for the sixteenth notes drummer Tucker Rule plays to kick off the song. Rickley’s vocals were sloppy as per usual and completely expected for these gigs, but they were spot on. His tone was there and in parts they even sound a bit polished. The band played a great mix of songs from all their albums. Of my favourite ‘War All The Time’ they played “Signals Over the Air”, which Rickley Described as a song that was about women’s rights…. Which I thought was really weird because I’ve listened to that song countless times and I never picked up on that. They also played “For the Workforce and Drowning” which I thought was the worst performed… It was incredibly sloppy and the band didn’t sound together. They ended with “War All the Time”, the title track, he said just before he played it: “I don’t think we ever played this here.” I think he’s right, after a lot of thought.Off of ‘Full Collapse’ they played: “Understanding”, “Cross Out the Eyes” and for the encore they played “Autobiography of a Nation”. “Autobiography” has a really sweet intro with a great bass/guitar bit. I was really impressed by Manny Carrero, who is the bassist for Saves the Day and Glassjaw. He played perfectly, I wouldn’t have even noticed the difference if Rickley didn’t point him out. Thursday had a keyboard player!!!!! I couldn’t help but think of the first time I saw this band play, where they performed “This Song Has Been Brought To You By A Falling Bomb” the ballad off of ‘War All The Time’. It was funny enough that there’s a ballad on that album, but when they did it live they played with a recording of the piano part. It was great nonetheless and it sounds spotless on the album. I always thought that Rickley put this on as a piss of to all those who use to call him “tone Geoff” because he was never in tune. I was incredibly happy when Rickley said “This song is not off of a full-length but on an EP called ‘Five Stories Fallen’, an album that is mostly live songs with the exception of this one song.” THEY PLAYED “JET BLACK NEW YEAR”, which is easily one of my favourite Thursday songs. The first time I saw them, they played this tune and at the end of the countdown of the song they released a load of confetti on the crowd. Not this time. But they did have ridiculous balloons flying everywhere, which I found super distracting… throughout a few songs, they eventually all just popped.They played a tune off of their split EP with the Japanese “punk” band Envy. It was released by Temporary Records which makes me incredibly happy, as Temporary is home to Explosions in the Sky and Eluvium!! It’s getting harder and harder to see this band because their growing catalogue is becoming less and less appealing to me. They do however satisfy everyone, in that they play songs from their entire catalogue.I’m super happy I was able to see them play right after they had released ’War All The Time’. That was five years ago!!! NOTE:Perhaps I should have referred to them as "Post-Hardcore". It almost seems like a genre they give to modern "Punk" bands that they find OK, or a step above the other ones. This band did put out a song called "Ian Curtis". Tell me what you think, i'm interested....

April 9, 2009